Introduction to Geographic Information Systems Spring 2013 (INF 385T-28437)
Dr. David ArcturLecturer, Research Fellow
University of Texas at Austin
Lecture 5February 7, 2013
Spatial Reference Systems, Data Sources
Outline
Models of the Earth Map projections Coordinate systems GIS data sources Vector data formats Raster data formats
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Models of the Earth’s shape
Sphere with radius of ~6378 km Ellipsoid (or Spheroid) with equatorial
radius (semimajor axis) of ~6378 km and polar radius (semiminor axis) of ~6357 km Difference of ~21km usually expressed as
“flattening” (f) ratio of the ellipsoid: f = difference / major axis = ~ 1/300 for
Earth and “inverse flattening” would be ~300
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Ellipsoid dimensions and flattening
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Ellipsoid = Spheroid in GIS…
Ellipsoid vs Geoid vs Datum
The Geoid is approximately where sea level would be throughout the world (measured by plumb bob away from coastal areas)
Due to variations in the Earth’s gravity field, this “global sea level” would not fit any one ellipsoid, as evident in figure
Datum = shape of ellipsoid AND location of origin for axis of rotation relative to Earth center of mass
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Horizontal Control DatumsCommons North American Datums NAD27 (1927 North American Datum)
Clarke (1866) ellipsoid, non-geocentric (local origin) for axis of rotation
NAD83 (1983 North American Datum) GRS80 ellipsoid, geocentric origin for axis of
rotation WGS84 (1984 World Geodetic System)
WGS84 ellipsoid, geocentric, nearly identical to NAD83
Other datums are also in use globallyINF385T(28437) – Spring 2013 – Lecture 5
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Datum shifts
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Datum transformations Theoretical method: use equations
relating Lat/Lon in one datum to another
Empirical method: use grid of differences to convert values directly from one datum to another
See Esri digital book on Map Projections for more information
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MAP PROJECTIONSHow do we get from 3D Earth to 2D maps???
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Latitude and longitude Longitude (meridians)
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Latitude and longitude Latitude (parallels)
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Latitude and longitude° Longitude (prime meridian)0
° Latitude (equator)0
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Latitude and longitude
Pittsburgh, PA USA
-80
40
Coordinates
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Lat/Long coordinates Degrees, minutes, and seconds (DMS):
40° 26′ 2″ N latitude -80° 0′ 58″ W longitude
Decimal degrees (DD) 1 degree = 60 minutes, 1 minute = 60 seconds 40° 26′ 2″ = 40 + 26/60 + 2/3600 = 40 + .43333 + .00055 = 40.434°
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Lat/long coordinates
Translated to distance World circumference through the poles
is 24,859.82 miles, so for latitude: 1° = 24,859.82 / 360 = 69.1 miles 1′ = 24,859.82 / (360 * 60) = 1.15 miles 1″ = 24,859.82 * 5,280 / (360 * 3,600) =
101 feet Length of the equator is 24,901.55
miles15INF385T(28437) – Spring 2013 – Lecture 5
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Picking a projection …[or: how big do you like Greenland?]
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Most-used methods
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Mercator projection (1569) Conformal projection Cylindrical Parallels and meridians at
right angles Linear scale is constant in
all directions around any point
Preserves angles and shapes of small objects
Distorts the size and shape of large objects
Map projection for nautical purposes
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Hammer – Aitoff (1882-1889) Equal-area Modified azimuthal
projection Good for population
density (world area) Difficult to see some
areas
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Robinson projection (1961) Pseudocylindrical Neither equal area nor
conformal Meridians curve gently,
avoiding extremes Good compromise
projection for viewing entire world
Used by Rand McNally since the 1960s and by the National Geographic Society (1988 and 1998)
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Albers Equal Area Conic projection Scale and shape are
not preserved, distortion is minimal between the standard parallels
Standard projection for British Columbia, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Census Bureau
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Other map projections…
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http://xkcd.com/977/
http://www.watermanpolyhedron.com/maps
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And the ever-popular…
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Bovine projection(s)
Spilled Coffee
Projection
Projection important for… Measurements used to make important decisions Comparing shapes, areas, distances, or
directions of map features Feature and image themes are aligned
Los Angeles
New York
Los Angeles
New York
Projection: MercatorDistance: 3,124.67 miles
Projection: Albers equal areaDistance: 2,455.03 miles
Actual distance: 2,451 miles 27INF385T(28437) – Spring 2013 – Lecture 5
Projection not important for… Business applications
Not of critical importance Concerned with the relative location of
different features
Large scale maps—street maps Distortion may be negligible Map covers only a small part of the earth’s
surface
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COORDINATE SYSTEMSLecture 5
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Geographic Coordinate System (GCS)
Spherical coordinates
Angles of rotation of a radius anchored at earth’s center
Latitude and longitude
Census Bureau TIGER files
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U.S. Census GCS example
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Rectangular coordinate system Used for
locating an intersection on a flat sheet of graph paper or a flat map
Cartesian coordinates (x,y)
State plane and UTM
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State Plane coordinates Established by the
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1930s
Originally North American Datum (NAD 1927)
More recently NAD 1983 and 1983 HARN
Used by local U.S. governments
All positive coordinates in feet (or meters)
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State Plane zones 125 zones
At least one for each state Cannot have zones joined to make larger
regions Follow state and county
boundaries Each has its own projection:
Lambert conformal projection for zones with east-west extent
Transverse Mercator projection for zones with north-south extent
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State Plane zones
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State Plane zones
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Pittsburgh neighborhoods as state plane coordinates
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Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Rectangular
coordinate system
Used by U.S. military
Covers entire world
Metric coordinates
Longitude zones are 6° wide
Latitude zones are 8° high
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Coordinate system summary Geographic coordinate system
U.S. Census State plane coordinate system
Local governments U.S. military
Projections defined in ArcCatalog or ArcMap (.prj) files
First file added in a map document sets the projection (others will adjust to it as long as they have a .prj file)
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GIS DATA SOURCES
We had to go through all that, so we can understand issues around importing spatial data from…
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GIS data sources ESRI U.S. Census USGS and other government sources GDT Dynamap/2000 U.S. Street Data Engineering companies
land surveys, aerial photos, CAD drawings
University Web sites (e.g. Penn State’s PASDA)
Zillions of others…41INF385T(28437) – Spring 2013 – Lecture 5
GIS data sources 30+ million Internet search results
type “GIS data download” or “population China .e00
add the name of the state, county, or city to the search
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GIS departments Web sites Washington, D.C.
dcgis.dc.gov/ Chicago, IL
www.cityofchicago.org/gis
Austin, TX Tip: Search by county name (Travis County,
Texas) http://www.austintexas.gov/development/ ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/GIS-Data/Regional/coa_gis.html
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ESRI’s Web site http://
www.esri.com/data/esri_data/demographic-overview
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U.S. Census Bureau Started building a map infrastructure in
the late 1970s and early 1980s Census mapping needs were twofold:
To assign census employees to areas of responsibility, covering the entire country and its possessions
To report and display census tabulations by area, officials determined that the smallest area needed for these purposes is a city block or its equivalent
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U.S. Census Bureau Compiles all line features used to
create a block layer for the entire country
Map features smaller than are the responsibility of local governments deeded land parcels buildings street curbs parking lots others?
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Census TIGER/Line files Topologically Integrated Geographic
Encoding and Referencing files Census Bureau’s product for digital
mapping of the U.S. Available for the entire U.S. and its
possessions Include the following geographic features
roads and street centerlines railroads rivers lakes census statistical boundaries
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TIGER census tracts Statistical boundary (below county
level) between 1,000 and 8,000 people (in
general) 1,700 housing units or 4,000 people homogeneous population characteristics
(economic status and living conditions) normally follow visible features may follow governmental unit boundaries
and other nonvisible features more than 60,000 census tracts in Census
2000 Also, the legal basis for developing
congressional districts INF385T(28437) – Spring 2013 – Lecture 5
PA tracts
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Allegheny County tracts
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Pittsburgh tracts
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TIGER census block groups
Subdivision of a census tract 400 housing units, with a minimum of 250
and a maximum of 550 housing units Follow clearly visible features such as
roads, rivers, and railroads
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Census block groups
53GIS TUTORIAL 1 - Basic Workbook
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TIGER census blocks Smallest geographic area for which the
Census Bureau collects and tabulates decennial census information Visible boundaries
street road stream Shoreline
Nonvisible boundaries county, city, neighborhood boundary property line
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Census blocks
55GIS TUTORIAL 1 - Basic Workbook
Other TIGER layers
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U.S. Census Bureau data tables
http://factfinder2.census.gov/
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Summary File (SF1) tables
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Summary File (SF3) tables
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SF tables comparisons
SF1 Population Age Sex Race Housing units FFH
SF3 Income Educational
attainment Citizenship Transportation Detailed housing
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Census summary Shapefiles downloaded from
www.census.gov or www.esri.com Data tables downloaded from American
Factfinder http://factfinder2.census.gov Data joins needed to join SF1 or SF3 to
shapefiles
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VECTOR DATA FORMATSLecture 5
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ArcInfo coverages Created using ESRI’s ArcInfo software Older format (import/export as “.e00”) Set of files within a folder or directory called
a workspace Files represent different types of topology or
feature types
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Coverage attribute table Area and perimeter
Coverage_ and Coverage_ID
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Shapefiles ArcView native format
Minimum files .shp–stores feature geometry .shx–stores index of features .dbf–stores attribute data
Additional files .prj–projection data .xml–metadata .sbn and .sbx–store additional indices
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CAD drawings CAD software
Autodesk, AutoCAD (.dwg) Bentley, Microstation (.dgn, .dxf)
Often used by engineering companies Architectural details, instructions to
builders Roads, bridges, dams
Better digitizing precision66INF385T(28437) – Spring 2013 – Lecture 5
CAD drawings
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CAD layers
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Event files Data table that includes map coordinates, such as latitude and longitude or projected coordinates
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Event files
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Export event files
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Creates point features
RASTER DATA FORMATSLecture 5
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Digital file formats TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)
.tif file extension Very high quality images Commonly used in publishing Sizes are large because it is uncompressed
GIF (Graphic Interchange Format): .gif as its file extension. Ideal for schematic drawings that have
relatively large areas with solid color fill and few color variations.
Small file sizes
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Digital file formats JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts
Group): .jpg file extension. Most widely used format for photographs
and other images that have a lot of color variations
Uses file compression at the expense of picture detail, if you specify a lot of compression
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Summary Models of the Earth Map projections Coordinate systems GIS data sources Vector data formats Raster data formats
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